The reductions will come through attrition and trimming workers' hours, not jobs, a federal security official says.
By JEAN HELLER
Published October 9, 2003
[Times photo: Toni Sandys]
From left, Rob Sadler, Bryan Radtke and Richard Maloney, Transportation Security Administration employees, chat during a lull in the baggage screening for Southwest Airlines at Tampa International Airport. In the foreground are Robert Robbins, left, and Richard Lanier. Staff cuts, but not layoffs, are planned for the screeners at TIA. Some workers may become part-time.
TAMPA - Federal security officials have launched another round of baggage screener cutbacks at Tampa International Airport, vowing that the reductions will be made through schedule changes and attrition and that security will not be compromised.
The airport's federal security director, Dario Compain, declined to say Wednesday how deeply he would cut into his current force of 690 screeners, but he said the percentage of job cutbacks would be "in the single digits."
Many of the job losses will come by turning full-time positions into part-time jobs and by not replacing some individuals who choose to leave. Airport officials hope the staff reductions will not lengthen passenger travel time because part-timers can be concentrated to work when travel is heaviest.
"TIA is best served with a mixed force of full-time and part-time workers because we have definite peaks and valleys in traffic, and when it is slow some of the full-time screeners don't have anything to do," Compain said.
The cutbacks at TIA are part of the third national effort to reduce the screener force because there is not enough money in the federal budget to pay for all of them. Of the original 55,600 screeners hired last November, 3,000 jobs were cut last spring, another 3,000 last summer, and 3,000 more will go in the current round of reductions.
"I have said for a long time that we were overstaffed here," Compain said. "But we are not considering any kind of layoff. We are in the process of sending letters to those whose jobs may go from full time to part time so they have some time to decide if they want to make the change. We have actually had some screeners ask to go on part-time status."
The current round of cuts will be done by the end of the year, he said.
Scores on recertification tests that all screeners took six weeks ago will play a role in who is offered part-time status. The first part of the exam involves multiple-choice questions that test screeners' knowledge of standard operating procedures. The second tests screeners' judgment of images that come up on X-ray machines and explosives detectors.
A third test, which will be given in January, involves screeners being graded while at work.
Compain acknowledged that there have been sporadic instances of long waits in security lines due to peak travel crowds and equipment breakdowns.
"We've been able to replace all of the older X-ray machines and all of the metal detectors," Compain said. "But people have to recognize how things will be when they travel. If you're flying at 2 p.m. on a Wednesday in October, it will take two minutes or less to clear security. If you fly at 5 or 6 a.m. on a Monday, it will take a lot longer."
